For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Seeing what God sees...not what we see

Have you ever been in a situation where it seems hard to gain a Godly perspective on something? You know, like someone being sick and not recovering the way everyone hoped and prayed for, or even thought about? I'm not one to let that get to me too much, but being in that situation can be incredibly draining. That is where we are right now--we all know the Lord is at work, that He has the absolute, immediate ability to heal dad's body and yet, we just aren't seeing the recovery we continue to pray for. Thankfully, that doesn't mean we lose hope though. The word of God says, "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope...'" (Jeremiah 29:11)...and we rest in that knowledge, but that doesn't mean handling all of this is easy.

As I've been thinking about this the past few days, I pulled out a CD from one of my all-time favorite musicals (I know, I'm making some confessions that some of you had no idea about...I love musicals), Man of La Mancha. I was first introduced to this musical at a high school church camp at Abilene Christian University right before my junior year in high school (22 years ago!), where we we shown the movie version (not as good as the stage version) and encouraged to begin to look at things from a different perspective, namely a Godly perspective. Now for those of you who don't know the story, the Man of La Mancha, or Don Quixote, has a unique perspective on things. Rather than seeing things as they are, he sees them, well, differently. Now some of the things he sees differently are just strange--like the windmill that he goes to battle with as a mistaken enemy, or the shaving bowl carried by the traveling barber that he sees as the "golden helmet of Mambrino"...but it is the people that he sees in a different light that makes him so special. Rather than seeing the town, um, prostitute, as everyone else sees her, he sees her as Dulcinea, the virgin maiden that he has been waiting for and that he treats with the utmost respect. As a result, most people begin to think he is crazy. Some of you are now asking, "what does this musical have to do with Maria's dad? Is he fighting windmills or picking up golden shaving buckets?" Obviously, the answer to those questions is no, he isn't.

The reality is that, at times, it seems a bit crazy to hold on to the sometimes unseen reality that God is still in control though! So what does that mean for us? It means that although medical professionals don't have all the answers, we know who does. It means that while we wait for dad's body to be healed, we rest in the knowledge that God sees dad's body already healed--whether here or in heaven, he will be healed. I'm not saying all of this to imply that dad is on death's doorstep because he isn't, but there are a lot of unknowns right now that makes this very difficult--especially for those of you who know Maria and me. We don't do so well with the unknown and yet, the Lord continues to allow us to go through "uncharted" waters. I don't mean that in a "woe is me" kind of way either...I hope it means that the Lord has found us faithful in previous uncharted territories (just to fill you in, we've experienced infertility, an ectopic pregnancy, and a 3 week NICU stay with Mclaine--all uncharted territory before those experiences!), but I also know we still have a lot to learn about maintaining faith, no matter what our circumstances.

So our prayer now is for dad's body to be healed, completely...and that we would cry out, just as the father did in Mark 9 when he came to Jesus and asked if He could free his son from the spirit that has seized him. Jesus replies, "If you can? All things are possible to him who believes." You may know the rest of the story, but for those of you who don't, the father then cries out, "I do believe; help my unbelief!"...and that is our cry, too. Lord, we do believe that dad's body can be healed...even when we don't see that happening the way we want...help my unbelief!

Thank you to all who are praying for dad's recovery, for mom, and for all of us as we walk through this--please keep it up! Heaven knows we couldn't make it without the support of so many fellow believers.

1 comment:

Love you guys, and of course Uncle Jim and Aunt Minnie. Everyone has our prayers, and we are standing with you that ALL THINGS are possible through Christ. You have, once again, said what I would like to say, only much more eloquently. :)